Trollhättan's restart strategy - From strategies to implementation of collaboration and living city center with digital innovation

The project has a particular focus on the "digital city centre".

Content and method
In the project, the researcher will analyze the city's work with the inclusive and digital neighborhood city. The researcher acts as a change leader who identifies critical phases in the process and initiates collaboration with business sector actors so that digital challenges can be transformed into opportunities such as hybrid meeting places, digital businesses, and virtual experiences for a vibrant city center. Such collaboration takes place in a workshop format with participants from the business community, individuals, and the city, where innovative ideas are to lead to prototypes and testing.

Background and current situation in Trollhättan
The city center of Trollhättan, like many other city centers, faces challenges with retail in the center, affecting the city's attractiveness and possibly leading to fewer investments and talents being drawn to the city. At the same time, external trading clusters contribute further to fewer people moving around the city, which reduces the possibilities for a safe and lively city around the clock. For these reasons, it is essential that the private sector, which has cutting-edge expertise in innovative logistics, digital business models, hybrid formats for commerce and services, and a strong entrepreneurial spirit, is included in the work with a lively neighborhood city. The ongoing digitalization affects, for example, people's ways of working, where they work, how they make their purchases, what they buy, and how they recycle. Digitalization also changes people's views on what retail is, and it is necessary for the city to plan for a new way to organize the city center based on the citizens' consumption needs and new purchasing behaviors. A well-thought-out digital city center can contribute with unexpected solutions for meetings, increased accessibility and comfort, and also provide new physical places for a consumer generation where both offline and online services contribute to a vibrant city center. 

Funding
The project is funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and the Flexit program, whose calls are intended to enable co-production with companies and organizations outside of higher education institutions. The project's overarching ambition is to augment comprehension and insight into how municipal-business collaborations can vitalize the city core, rendering it inclusive and pioneering in digital innovation.

This project concentrates specifically on "the digital city center," fostering a nexus of innovation in concert with commercial stakeholders.